Abstract

The health survey, the 12-Item Short-Form (SF-12) survey instrument, was developed as a shorter alternative to the SF-36 for use in scale studies. The aim of our study was to adapt this instrument into Moroccan Arabic and to examine its psychometric properties. The SF-12 was translated from English to dialectical Moroccan Arabic following the International Quality of Life Assessment translation procedure. The psychometric properties were tested in September 2007. Testing involved a sample of families and friends of patients (≥ 16 years old) in the diagnostic centre of the Fez University hospital, Morocco. The SF-12 was assessed by examining item-level characteristics, estimates of scale reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity. The study was conducted on 141 subjects. The physical component summary (PCS-12) and the mental health component Summary (MCS-12) of the SF-12 demonstrated good internal consistency reliability, with alpha coefficients of 0.80 and 0.79, respectively. Multitrait analysis showed that the subscales of the SF-12 had good convergent and discriminant validity. Construct validity, assessed by the method of extreme groups, determined that the SF-12 summary scores varied for individuals who differed according to age and medical conditions. The Moroccan Arabic version of the SF-12 appears to be a valid tool with which to for assess the health status of the general Moroccan population. On the other hand, issues such as test-retest reliability, longitudinal construct validity and responsiveness were not addressed in this study and should be considered in future ones.